Then Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance walks onstage with his wife Usha Vance at a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, September 23, 2024. Nell Redmond/AP

When JD Vance told a stadium of thousands he hoped his wife would one day be moved “by the Christian gospel” the same way he was, he inadvertently stepped into a contentious dialogue in India and among the diaspora about religious freedom and, for some, evoked memories of the country’s complicated past with Christian proselytizing.

Speaking at an event last month with Turning Point USA at the University of Mississippi, Vance was asked by an audience member about Christianity and American patriotism.

“Why are we making Christianity one of the major things that you have to have in common to be one of you guys? To

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